Clinton F. Clarke. As a member of one of the oldest families in America, Clinton F. Clarke traces his ancestry to Thomas Clarke, a native of old England and a mate on the maiden voyage of the Mayflower to this country. Thomas Clarke settled at Harwich, Massachusetts, and it is worthy of note here that Clarke Island in Plymouth Harbor was named after him. Among his numerous descendants are many patriotic Americans who have served illustriously in our various wars. William Thomas Clarke, father of the subject of this sketch, was for four years a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war. He enlisted in the First Nebraska Volunteer Cavalry, from which he was later transferred and promoted to the rank of assistant adjutant general, under General Clinton B. Fiske, with headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri. He saw considerable active service and participated in a number of important battles. He was born in Manlius, New York, in 1833, and passed to eternal rest at Arnold Park, Dickinson County, Iowa, August 15, 1890. He was reared to adult age in his native place and as a young man journeyed west to Omaha, Nebraska. Later he married Kate Crippen Fisk, a native of Coldwater, Michigan, where her birth occurred in 1843. In 1879 Mr. Clarke removed, with his family, to Des Moines, Iowa, and there he was most successfully engaged in the insurance business until his demise at his summer home, Arnold Park. He was a republican in politics, was affiliated with the time honored Masonic fraternity and in religious matters was a devout communicant of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, of Des Moines. His devoted wife survived him for more than a score of years, her death occurring at Des Moines in the spring in 1912. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Clarke: William Thomas is western representative of the Home Insurance Company of New York, his home and business headquarters being at Des Moines; Clinton F., of this notice; and Robert Lincoln, who died in infancy.

In the City of Omaha, Nebraska, June 7, 1869, occurred the birth of Clinton F. Clarke, who was ten years of age at the time of his parents’ removal to Des Moines, Iowa, in which latter place he received a good common-school education. For three years he attended the Shattuck Military School, at Faribault, Minnesota, and in 1896 he entered the banking business in Des Moines as a clerk in the Citizens National Bank, with which concern he was connected for the ensuing five years. In 1900 he became assistant cashier of the Citizens National Bank at Winterset, Iowa, continuing as such until 1906. He then engaged in the real-estate business in Des Moines and devoted his attention to that line of enterprise, with marked success, until 1911, when he re-entered the banking business as special clerk for the Iowa National Bank. In the fall of 1913 he came to Anadarko, representing a syndicate of five banks, as collector, his offices being at No. 123 Broadway. He owes political allegiance to the republican party, is an ex-member of the Masonic fraternity, and belongs to the U. S. Grant Lodge of the Modern Woodmen of America, at Des Moines. Mr. Clarke is a capable business man and he is a loyal and public-spirited citizen, giving a stalwart support to all matters projected for the betterment of his home community.

In the fall of 1896, in Des Moines, Iowa, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clarke to Miss Edna G. Sedwick, a daughter of William C. Sedwick, who is a traveling salesman with residence at Hiawatha, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Clarke have two daughters: Mary Ethel, a sophomore in high school at Anadarko; and Henrietta Catherine, a seventh-grade pupil in this city.